Middle School (6-8) Text-based Informational Writing …

[Pages:40]Middle School (6-8) Text-based Informational Writing Prompts

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Middle School (6-8) Text-based Informational Writing Prompts

Table of Contents

IntelliMetric? Prompts............................................................................................................................. 3 "Breaking Barriers"............................................................................................................................... 3 "Cassowary: Giant Bird of the Rainforest"........................................................................................... 4 Compare and Contrast Space and Oceanic Exploration ....................................................................... 5 Compare and Contrast the Panama Canal and Great Wall of China .................................................... 5 Construction Projects............................................................................................................................ 7 "Crazy About Games" .......................................................................................................................... 8 "Egg-Laying Species"........................................................................................................................... 9 Ellis Island .......................................................................................................................................... 10 Jet Packs.............................................................................................................................................. 12 Learning from the Past........................................................................................................................ 13 Persephone and the Four Seasons ...................................................................................................... 13 Rock Climbing.................................................................................................................................... 13 Spread of the Black Death .................................................................................................................. 14 The Bill of Rights ............................................................................................................................... 14 "The Clean Machine" ......................................................................................................................... 16 The Power of Waves........................................................................................................................... 17

Pilot Prompts .......................................................................................................................................... 18 At the South Pole (pilot) ..................................................................................................................... 18 Central Idea in "Matthew Henson at the Top of the World" (pilot) ................................................... 21 Effects of Climate Change on National Parks" (pilot) ....................................................................... 24 Hydrogen as an Alternative Fuel (pilot) ............................................................................................. 25 Impact of U.S. Government Policies on Native American Populations (pilot).................................. 27 Slavery Prior to the Civil War (pilot) ................................................................................................. 30 The Effects of Social Media on Teens (pilot)..................................................................................... 30 The Legacy of Lincoln (pilot)............................................................................................................. 31 The Legacy of the Buffalo Soldiers (pilot)......................................................................................... 33 Westward Journey (pilot) ................................................................................................................... 37

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IntelliMetric? Prompts

Informational Text Standard 1 ? Grades 6-8 Informational Text Standard 2 ? Grades 6-8 "Breaking Barriers"

Carefully read "Breaking Barriers." Then write a multi-paragraph essay in which you summarize the article. Be sure to use specific details and examples from the article to support your response.

Breaking Barriers

In recent years, Venus and Serena Williams have dominated professional women's tennis. Tiger Woods has dominated professional golf. All three of these champions are of African-American descent. But not that long ago, all three would have been banned from professional sports because of their color. These famous athletes owe at least a small debt of gratitude to a remarkable woman named Althea Gibson for breaking racial barriers in professional sports. She was the first African American to play professional tennis or professional golf in the United States -- and she played them both!

Althea Gibson was born in 1927 in Silver, South Carolina. Her parents, Daniel and Annie Gibson, worked on a farm. They decided to move their family to New York City when Althea was three years old. She grew up in Harlem in the 1930s, during the Great Depression. As a girl, Althea loved to play basketball and other sports with the boys in her neighborhood. Because of her fantastic athletic ability, Althea was a diamond in the rough. During the summer of 1941, Althea won a paddle ball tournament in Harlem. One of the people who watched her play suggested that she should try her hand at tennis -so she did.

In the 1940s, Althea Gibson began taking tennis lessons and winning tennis tournaments. From 1947 onward, she won ten straight national championships of the all-black American Tennis Association (ATA). But she was prohibited from playing in the all-white tennis events held by the U.S. Lawn Tennis Association (USLTA).

For several years, many athletes lobbied for Althea Gibson, including tennis champion Alice Marble. Finally, on August 28, 1950, Ms. Gibson was allowed to play in the U.S. National Championship at Forest Hills in New York. She was the first African American to compete in that or any other USLTA event. That year she won her first match against Barbara Knapp of England but lost to her next opponent in the second round.

Althea Gibson continued to dominate ATA tournaments for several years and began playing in more USLTA events. In 1955-56, she traveled to Asia playing tennis on the Goodwill Tour put on by the U.S. government. When she returned for the 1956 season, she won 16 USLTA matches. She also won the French championship, defeating England's Angela Mortimer in the finals. With that victory, she became the first African American to win a major title in singles tennis.

In 1957, Gibson made sports history by winning the All-England Tennis Championships at Wimbledon. When she returned from England, New Yorkers welcomed her with a parade and the Medallion of the City. Soon afterward she won the U.S. National Championship and became the topranked tennis player in the world. Gibson was the first African-American woman to win both of these

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championships. She was chosen Female Athlete of the Year by the Associated Press. In the following year she won both tournaments again. Then she decided to retire from tennis.

Althea Gibson was a marvelous athlete and had become a celebrity at age 31, but she was just getting started. In 1958 she wrote her autobiography, I Always Wanted to Be Somebody. In 1959 she made a record album, Althea Gibson Sings, and appeared in a movie called The Horse Soldiers. In 1960 she traveled with the Harlem Globetrotters basketball team -- until she decided to take up professional golf. In 1964 she joined the Ladies Professional Golf Association (LPGA) and became the first African-American woman to play in an LPGA event. In a seven-year career, she played in 171 golf tournaments, winning one of them.

In later years, Althea Gibson worked as a tennis teacher and as the athletic commissioner for the state of New Jersey. She was inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame in 1971 and the International Women's Sports Hall of Fame in 1980.

Perhaps more important than her many awards, however, was what she achieved as a pioneer in sports. In her remarkable career, she broke many barriers that had prevented people of color from competing in both amateur and professional sports. Her achievements helped to pave the way for many outstanding athletes who have followed in her footsteps, including Arthur Ashe, Zina Garrison, the Williams sisters, and Tiger Woods. Many people of all colors mourned the passing of Althea Gibson in September 2003. She was 76.

Informational Text Standard 1 ? Grades 6-8 Informational Text Standard 2 ? Grades 6-8 "Cassowary: Giant Bird of the Rainforest"

Carefully read "Cassowary: Giant Bird of the Rainforest." Then write a multi-paragraph essay in which you summarize the article. Be sure to use specific details and examples from the article to support your response.

Cassowary: Giant Bird of the Rainforest

Strange Bird

The cassowary is surely one of the world's strangest creatures. It is a flightless bird, often more than five feet tall. It lives in the rainforests of Australia and Papua New Guinea. Its large body is covered with hair-like feathers that resemble a glossy black cape. Its bare legs are thick and sturdy. Each foot has three long toes with strong, sharp claws used for fighting. In contrast to its dark body, the cassowary's neck and head are a brilliant blue, adorned with bright red wattles and topped by a tall, bony crown. It is the crown that gives the cassowary its name, which comes from the Papuan words "kasu" (horned) and "weri" (head).

Cassowaries eat rainforest fruits. For the most part, cassowaries lead solitary lives. The adult female lays several clutches of large eggs each year, but the male alone incubates the eggs and takes care of the young. Cassowary eggs are a beautiful pale green, about 5 1/2 inches long. The father bird sits on the nest for 48 to 50 days. When the chicks hatch, they follow the adult male everywhere. He teaches them how to find food and water. He is very protective of them for several months until they are ready to survive on their own.

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Although the cassowary seems quite unusual, it has several close relatives. All are members of a group of flightless birds known as ratites. This group includes the kiwi of New Zealand, the ostrich of Africa, the emu of Australia, and the rhea of South America. Several other members of the group are now extinct, including the magnificent giant moa of New Zealand. Giant moas grew as tall as 10 feet. The largest bird living today is the ostrich, which is 6 to 8 feet in height.

The Cassowary's Future

The cassowary is in danger of becoming extinct in Australia. The main reason is habitat destruction. Much of the rainforest that the cassowary depends on for food and shelter is disappearing. People have cut down much of Australia's rainforest for farming, leaving fewer and fewer places for cassowaries to live. Pigs and dogs are also invading cassowary country, competing for food and killing the young. Even small shifts in the kinds of plants that grow in an area can make it impossible for cassowaries to live there. This is because cassowaries depend on up to 150 different plants in order to have food throughout the year.

Plants also need cassowaries. Losing cassowaries from Australia's rainforest would mean losing some of its plants, too. More than 100 plants depend on the cassowary to spread their seeds. Where there are no more cassowaries, these plants are likely to die out.

The cassowary's beautiful rainforest environment is worth protecting. It is truly an interdependent web of life. For this reason, some people in Australia are working hard to protect both cassowaries and their habitat.

Informational Text Standard 1 ? Grades 6-8 Informational Text Standard 9 ? Grades 6, 7 Compare and Contrast Space and Oceanic Exploration

Having read, viewed, and discussed different aspects of space and oceanic exploration, write an informational essay about the topic to be sent to your state senator. Be sure that the essay thoroughly covers the similarities and differences between the two forms of exploration.

In a multi-paragraph informative/explanatory essay, compare and contrast space and oceanic exploration for your state senator. Remember to include and cite key details and facts from your sources that clearly elaborate on the two forms of exploration.

Informational Text Standard 1 ? Grades 6-8 Compare and Contrast the Panama Canal and Great Wall of China

Carefully read "The Panama Canal" and watch the "Deconstructing History: Great Wall of China" video. They describe very different construction projects. After examining the ideas conveyed in each, write a multi-paragraph, informative essay in which you compare and contrast the purpose behind each structure and the challenges builders faced during their construction. Include facts and details from the text and video to support your writing.

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Passage One: The Panama Canal

Before the construction of the Panama Canal, ships sailing between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans had to go around the tip of South America - a trip of several thousand miles. There was no way to travel through the American continent to get from one ocean to the other. The voyage around South America generally took three weeks or more and was quite dangerous. Many ships sank or wrecked in the treacherous waters around Cape Horn at the southern tip of South America.

Spanish kings first began to think about building a canal across the Isthmus of Panama as early as the 1500s. They wanted an easier route to bring treasure from the West to ships in the Caribbean Sea, and then across the Atlantic to Spain. It was not until 1880, however, that a French company began work on such a canal.

The French stopped work on the canal several times as they ran into problems. Lack of money, intense heat and terrible rains, diseases that killed thousands of workers, and rugged geography made digging the canal extremely difficult. Workers had to blast through the mountains of the continental divide and cross the large Chagres River. After nearly 20 years of work, the French effort failed when the company went bankrupt.

In 1904, the United States stepped in to complete the canal. The Americans' initial interest in the canal was for use by the military so that Navy ships could move quickly from one ocean to the other. After ten years of hard work, the canal finally opened on August 15, 1914. It cost over six hundred million dollars to build and employed a total of 80,000 workers, both French and American. Of those workers, over 30,000 died during the construction. With the building of the canal, ships could travel between the Atlantic and the Pacific in as little as eight hours.

The United States controlled the canal and the land around it, called the "Canal Zone," until 1999, but many people in Panama resented the U.S. presence. They felt that they should have more control of the canal and a greater share of the money that came from canal tolls. They also did not like having such a large American military presence in their country. After much struggle and pressure from other countries, the United States began to negotiate to give control of the Canal Zone to Panama. The government withdrew troops and closed military bases. On December 31, 1999, the United States officially gave control of the canal and the land around it to the government of Panama.

Today, ships from more than 70 countries use the canal, though the United States still uses it most. Ships passing through the canal each year carry millions of tons of cargo and pay hundreds of millions of dollars in tolls. Some amazing technology has been developed in the past 100 years, but the Panama Canal remains one of the greatest engineering marvels in the world.

COPYRIGHT ? 2015 by Vantage Learning. All Rights Reserved. No part of this work may be used, accessed, reproduced or distributed in any form or by any means or stored in a database or any retrieval system, without the prior written permission of Vantage Learning. Revised 10/21/15.

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Informational Text Standard 1 ? Grades 6-8 Informational Text Standard 2 ? Grades 6-8 Construction Projects

Carefully read "The Panama Canal" and "The Mystery of the Moai." They both describe very different construction projects. Write a multi-paragraph essay in which you compare and contrast the purpose behind each structure and the challenges the builders faced. Use details from both articles to support your answer.

Passage One: The Panama Canal

Before the construction of the Panama Canal, ships sailing between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans had to go around the tip of South America - a trip of several thousand miles. There was no way to travel through the American continent to get from one ocean to the other. The voyage around South America generally took three weeks or more and was quite dangerous. Many ships sank or wrecked in the treacherous waters around Cape Horn at the southern tip of South America.

Spanish kings first began to think about building a canal across the isthmus of Panama as early as the 1500s. They wanted an easier route to bring treasure from the West to ships in the Caribbean Sea, and then across the Atlantic to Spain. It was not until 1880, however, that a French company began work on such a canal.

The French stopped work on the canal several times as they ran into problems. Lack of money, intense heat and terrible rains, diseases that killed thousands of workers, and rugged geography made digging the canal extremely difficult. Workers had to blast through the mountains of the continental divide and cross the large Chagres River. After nearly 20 years of work, the French effort failed when the company went bankrupt.

In 1904, the United States stepped in to complete the canal. The Americans' initial interest in the canal was for use by the military so that Navy ships could move quickly from one ocean to the other. After ten years of hard work, the canal finally opened on August 15, 1914. It cost over six hundred million dollars to build and employed a total of 80,000 workers, both French and American. Of those workers, over 30,000 died during the construction. With the building of the canal, ships could travel between the Atlantic and the Pacific in as little as eight hours.

The United States controlled the canal and the land around it, called the "Canal Zone," until 1999, but many people in Panama resented the U.S. presence. They felt that they should have more control of the canal and a greater share of the money that came from canal tolls. They also did not like having such a large American military presence in their country. After much struggle and pressure from other countries, the United States began to negotiate to give control of the Canal Zone to Panama. The government withdrew troops and closed military bases. On December 31, 1999, the United States officially gave control of the canal and the land around it to the government of Panama.

Today, ships from more than 70 countries use the canal, though the United States still uses it most. Ships passing through the canal each year carry millions of tons of cargo and pay hundreds of millions of dollars in tolls. Some amazing technology has been developed in the past 100 years, but the Panama Canal remains one of the greatest engineering marvels in the world.

COPYRIGHT ? 2015 by Vantage Learning. All Rights Reserved. No part of this work may be used, accessed, reproduced or distributed in any form or by any means or stored in a database or any retrieval system, without the prior written permission of Vantage Learning. Revised 10/21/15.

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Passage Two: The Mystery of the Moai

Easter Island lies in the South Pacific Ocean, closest to the country of Chile in South America. The earliest people to settle Easter Island probably came from Polynesia, but no one knows when, how, or why they made the trip. These islanders called their island Rapa Nui, but the name Easter Island came from the fact that European explorers first arrived there on Easter in 1722. What amazed the explorers then still amazes visitors and anthropologists today: 877 giant statues called moai, carved from the hard ash of a volcano. These moai, which were created between 1400 A.D. and 1600 A.D., appear nowhere else in the world.

Moai range in height from about 3 1/2 feet to about 72 feet. They weigh up to 165 tons. Some of these statues are standing upright on rock platforms called ahu. On top of a completed moai sits a carved stone that looks like a knot. This topknot is called a pukao.

Some of the moai on Easter Island lie unfinished at the volcano where the hard ash rock comes from, and where all the moai were carved. Some lie on tracks used to move them, while others stand on their ahu. Those that are upright face the land, not the sea. How do you think people of long ago were able to carve, transport, and then raise the statues with no more than simple tools and materials?

One archaeologist, Joanne Van Tilburg, studied all 877 moai on Easter Island in 1989. She invited people to come up with ideas about how the moai were moved and raised. The theories were tried out on models of moai, made from the same volcano ash as the real moai. These tests using ropes, logs, and such became part of a television program about the moai in the science series called Nova.

Joanne Van Tilburg concluded that it took many kinds of materials and many people to carve, move, and raise a moai. It probably took a long time to move just one moai from the volcano area to its ahu. No one idea for moving the model moai and raising it seemed to be 100 percent correct.

If you ask a native person of Easter Island how the moai made it onto their ahu, they will tell you their belief. They believe the moai walked across the island and stepped onto their ahu when they were told to do so. The power to make them walk is called mana.

In 1919, a British archaeologist named Katherine Routledge lived on Easter Island for a year. In her journal she wrote about an old woman who lived by the mountain where moai were made. This woman cooked for the carvers of the moai. She was said to have mana. So, with her orders, the moai walked to their ahu and stood on them, wearing their pukao.

The model moai used by Joanne Van Tilburg's group now stands at an island school. It reminds the young students of their great history. Why were these great statues made? Why do they face the land and not the ocean? Do the moai protect the people of Rapa Nui and help them to live their lives? The moai may be a mystery to many. For the people of Easter Island, they are a source of great pride and history.

Informational Text Standard 1 ? Grades 6-8 Informational Text Standard 2 ? Grades 6-8 "Crazy About Games"

Carefully read "Crazy About Games." Then write a multi-paragraph essay in which you summarize the article. Be sure to use specific details and examples from the article to support your response.

COPYRIGHT ? 2015 by Vantage Learning. All Rights Reserved. No part of this work may be used, accessed, reproduced or distributed in any form or by any means or stored in a database or any retrieval system, without the prior written permission of Vantage Learning. Revised 10/21/15.

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